Not About the Game, but a related question...

After cruising through the site a few times and seeing some of the movies that people have made, I've noticed a significant difference in how well their game looks compared to mine. I know it has to do with the type of video card that is in their computer, so I'm wondering if anybody would have a suggestion as to a good video card that I could put into an HP a300n model (2.6 GHz Celeron processor, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB hard drive, factory-installed*yuck*video card). Any help is appreciated, I'm somewhat of a dullard when it comes to actual computer hardware.

budget, budget, budget?

100
250
500?

give an idea and we can help

at about 225 the 6600GT is hard to beat for performance/dollar

Hmmm.....

I'm thinking the most I'd want/be able to spend would be $125, but it's all contingent on how big my next pay check is and how much I get in tips...

there are several choices in that price range that are good and would be vastly superior

a quick check at newegg shows
ati 9800se or 9600 pro

nvidia 6200

for 125 or less

both are well above the RECOMMENDED specs at the GW site and way above the minimum specs

I'll check that out when I'm heading to bed tonight. I'd do it right now, but I've got a big stack of homework to take care of and I'm not getting to far on it by looking around the forums

[QUOTE=William of Orange]
HP a300n model [QUOTE]

You have to get a card your motherboard can handle.
Click here to view motherboard specs ... which is ASUS P4G533 for other viewers

Your factory card is 64MB built in. When purchasing a newer video be sure you have at least 128MB.

You have 3 open pci slots located at the light tan slots. Be ABSOLUTELY SURE NOT TO BUY AN AGP VIDEO CARD. Your motherboard has NO AGP SLOTS.

If you buy a card it will have to go into your expansion slots ...
Heres the tricky part nowadays there the super fast PCI-Express, ... which cannot work in these slots. MUST be a PCI card.

Off a quick search for a matching card I found

PNY Verto GeForce FX 5500 / 128MB DDR / PCI / Dual VGA / TV Out / Video Card for $119 on tigerdirect

or

Chaintech GeForce FX 5200 / 128MB DDR / PCI / VGA / DVI / TV Out Video Card for $90 on tigerdirect too!

Here's link to main pci video card sub site of tiger ... but try to find it locally, use this site as refernce to get names

Hope you learned something of your cpu ... if you go to local store ... tell them your exact motherboard ASUS P4G533, and 128MB PCI video card, not PCI-E

I bet they do install for you even for like 10 bucks, if you do it ... be sure to touch the back of your powersupply with one hand to prevent static electricity frying any parts. If you get a card post back on this thread or another. I'll help give you instructions ... me sleepy now zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz
Hope this helps!

Thanks for the good info stumpy...

However, I just decided last night that I'm going to take up my parents offer and get a new computer for college. I have about 3 months until I get the new one, which will be a lot better than this cheap HP and I'll be able to get exactly what I want. I'll have about a month and a half of game play from when Guild Wars is released and just the next two Beta Events on this machine. I'm thinking that I'll just put it on hold, order my computer and have a decent card put in when it's being prepared.

$1,000 budget with my parents money will work nicely for me, cause this computer right now only has a 40 GB hard drive, the old video card, no DVD drive, and the system isn't the most stable one I've ever seen. It likes to randomly crash on me, and I can't figure out it's pattern yet. But enough rambling for now, I'm kind of just talking to myself.

you can get a pretty good gaming rig for $1k off of newegg.com. tigerdirect.com usually has decent prices, but avoid the rebates like a plague.

Honestly I'd reccomend a Radeon 9600 XT over any Nvidia card. However, for Guild Wars I have a spineless BFG GeForce FX 5200 and I can still play at max (except AA) with no framerate drops even in total snafu.

Whether it's an ati or nvidia ... doesn't much matter. Only the speed and type of memory. When buying a new card be sure it has a pci-express slot in the motherboard. PCI express has the fastest throughput and can the ability to link 2 cards together. Future proof your pc by picking up a AMD 64 bit processor (best price at best quality). Hope to see you on the battlefield someday!